Poem Analysis O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman Essays

The poem basically tells a story about the death of the captain of a ship men crew. The speaker of the poem is a sailor of the ship crew. He grieves mournfully about the death of his respectfully captain. Gloomy and dreary atmospheres are vividly sensed throughout the poem as the speaker lamenting the captain’s death. The poem begins with the speaker calling out his captain that they have finally made it home after their â€Å"fearful trip†. The boat is in sight of land and the people in the shore watch as it approaches, cheering and ringing church bells. However, as it approaches the shore, the boat is described as â€Å"grim and daring†, as if the speaker warns that something terrible is going to happen. And terrible as it is, the captain on deck†¦show more content†¦Finally, â€Å"his lips are pale and still† is representing the general state of death. Another figurative language applied in this poem is apostrophe. Apostrophe is a kind of personification in which a person calls out to something or someone who isn’t there or can’t answer you back. Apostrophe can be seen in stanza 2, â€Å"O heart! heart! heart!†, as heart can’t answer the speaker. â€Å"O Captain! My Captain!† in stanza 3 is also an apostrophe, since the captain has already described â€Å"fallen cold and dead†. Lastly, â€Å"Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!†, as neither shores nor bells are actually alive. Sound device that is used in this poem is rhyme. The rhyme pattern is aabb-xcxc. The end of each line of the last two stanzas in the following are colored with different colors to mark the rhyme. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchord safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. It is Whitman’s admiration toward Abraham Lincoln and gloom toward his death that inspire me to choose this poem. Like most of Americans, Whitman felt a deep loss when Abraham Lincoln died. He had been a greatShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem O Captain My Captain By Walt Whitman1337 Words   |  6 Pagestoday. To begin analyzing this poem we must first look at the context of when the poem was written. This poem, â€Å"O Captain, My Captain† was written by Walt Whitman in 1865 after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This death of the beloved president left the entire country devastated. Walt Whitman was a very strong admirer of Abraham Lincoln and often saw him as a fatherly figure in his life. Whitman writes many times in his poem yelling â€Å"father† (Whitman 13). Whitman truly believed that Lincoln hadRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem O Captain ! 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